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Well yes he is gone, in fact nearly everybody who got me started is gone.
Not too keen to name names not all stories I've ever told have been totally complementary. However if there's any Kiwis out there who may remember back this far, the two main guys who got me started were Jasper Bray and Bill Haines. Jasper in particular being a remarkable beekeeper I really lucked out getting a job with him. Could read a hive like a book and was fastidious about his beekeeping, also demanded very high standards. We had close to 4,000 hives, and with those were consistently able to produce a bigger total crop than another outfit with 14,000 hives.

Re: Going Treatment Free - step 1

Originally Posted by Tim Ives

Around Feb 20th prolific queens drop all the way down.

That is very interesting. I had noticed that some queens moved down and some didn't.

This year, there are two hives that stick out in my mind, one with a year old queen that didn't move down, yet still very prolific. Another hive with my only marked queen who I know is three years old, she moved down and is doing well, but not stellar. Many of the yearling and prolific hives moved down in my outyards. Some didn't and are not very prolific. I am interested to watch for this in the future.

Re: Going Treatment Free - step 1

Originally Posted by Solomon Parker

That is very interesting. I had noticed that some queens moved down and some didn't.

This year, there are two hives that stick out in my mind, one with a year old queen that didn't move down, yet still very prolific. Another hive with my only marked queen who I know is three years old, she moved down and is doing well, but not stellar. Many of the yearling and prolific hives moved down in my outyards. Some didn't and are not very prolific. I am interested to watch for this in the future.

The below average hives with younger queens are the ones I split first and as early as possible. The stronger boomers are the hives producing drones first. So after a couple years, your genetically increasing performance. My out yards are unrelated to the yards close. By moving splits around to get the queens mated then move to a unrelated yard helps reduce on inbreeding or create new yards with various crosses.

Hives that didn't build up early and have lower drone population. Will also have lower mite counts, since mites need drone cells to be most prolific. Then by splitting them you'll break the mite cycle (early).

Re: Going Treatment Free - step 1

" Honey Bees do a finite number of task, beekeepers do a infinite number of things to their bees. The better you understand the finite tasks bees do, the more infinite your beekeeping shall become" - Tim Ives